Colorado School Evacuated, Hostages Held

upinya83 · #1 09-27-2006, 03:21 PM

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_270144137.html

Gunman Seizes 4 Hostages At Colorado High School

Area In Lockdown At Police Seek Answers In Standoff

(CBS News) An adult gunman took at least four people hostage at the high school in this tiny mountain town Wednesday and several shots were reported fired, authorities said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Adjoining Jefferson County sent a bomb squad and SWAT team to Platte Canyon High School and hundreds of students were evacuated. Bailey is about 35 miles southwest of Denver.

CBS News affiliate KCNC in Denver reports that originally five hostages were taken, but one has been released.

The evacuation of the high school and a nearby middle school came after a loud noise, said Jan Howard, a secretary to the superintendent of schools.

"I don't know what the noise was," she said. She said students were taken to a safe location, but predicted parents would not be able to immediately reach them because the only highway in and out of town had been shut down.

Jefferson County authorities are all too familiar with school attacks: The sheriff's office handled the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in which two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives.

"I'm just terrified. I'm terrified," said Sherry Husen, whose son plays on the high school football team and was told not to return to school from his part-time job. "I know so many kids in that school."

The schools are in a narrow, winding canyon carved by the South Platte River about 35 miles southwest of Denver. They have an enrollment of about 770 students, with 460 in the high school.

Husen's family moved to Bailey from suburban Denver about 14 years ago.

"We moved up here for the mountain solitude, and I just never thought this would happen in this school, but it happens everywhere," she said.

Other schools in the area were put in lockdown, meaning students would not be allowed to leave until administrators determined it was safe. KCNC reports that Conifer High School, West Jefferson Middle School and elementary school and Elk Creek Elementary were also under lockdown.